By Paweł Siwecki, BPCC CEO

 

Dear Members and Readers,

I would like to share our full report, made to the BPCC’s Annual General Meeting on 24 April.

Board composition

It was resolved that the composition of the board shall be as follows:

  • Michał Obiegała, BP Poland, was elected as chairman of the board
  • Dariusz Kucharski, HSBC Poland, will continue in his role as vice-chairman
  • Paweł Świętochowski, Castorama Poland, was elected as secretary to the board
  • Elżbieta Pełka, Pełka & Partners, will continue in her role as board member
  • Aneta Jóźwicka has resigned from the BPCC board

Membership survey

This year’s survey showed a high level of satisfaction and loyalty among BPCC members. Over 80% of the firms that responded are satisfied with their membership in the BPCC. More than half of respondents (54%) would recommend BPCC membership; only 14% would not. The NPS (Net Promoter Score) indicator is 40, a good result. The study was conducted using standardised computer-assisted questionnaire interviews; 56 companies took part in the study.

  • The main expectation of firms regarding BPCC membership is to establish new business contacts and networking. Access to decision-makers at the management board level and representatives of public administration, company promotion and access to expert knowledge are also important.
  • Companies expect more help from BPCC in establishing contacts with companies and experts. They also want to take part in meetings with Polish legislators to discuss business problems.
  • Services judged most useful: sector events (85%) networking events (80%), CEO events (77%), and database access (77%) and access to BPCC media (69%).
  • BPCC member companies expect the Chamber to improve communication, organise more events, intensify networking activities, provide more help for SMEs and grow the membership.
  • In the last year, over 40% of the firms surveyed were recommended to another firm by a BPCC member, and over 40% received recommendations.

The main expectation of companies regarding membership in BPCC is establishing new business contacts and networking (91%). Access to decision-makers at the management board level and representatives of public administration (53%), promotion of the company (49%), access to expert knowledge (29%) and access to current economic and market information (24%) are also important.

Companies expect the BPCC to help them establish contacts with other companies and industry experts (77%), organise meetings with Polish legislators and decision-makers (42%), monitor draft regulations (25%) and lobby on behalf of the industry sector (19%).

Regulatory affairs

In the run-up to Poland’s parliamentary elections last autumn, the BPCC held a series of meetings with parties’ economic spokespersons. The chamber invited all political parties to share their plans for economy. Representatives who accepted were (in chronological order of the meetings): Michał Kobosko representing PL 2050; Dariusz Wieczorek representing Nowa Lewica; Władysław Teofil Bartoszewski representing PSL; Krzysztof Bosak representing Konfederacja and Izabela Leszczyna and Andrzej Domański representing Koalicja Obywatelska.

Representatives were asked the same questions, addressing regulatory stability for business, macroeconomic issues, ESG and the labour market. All interlocutors said they want to assure more stability and predictability of the regulatory process. Discussions focused on the parties’ approach towards the EU, macroeconomics tackling inflation, the labour market and energy transformation.

The politicians agreed that better regulatory impact assessment, consultations and more time to prepare for new legislation are needed for foreign investors to continue to perceive the country as a good investment location.

After the election and the forming of the new government, it turned out that from among the group of speakers we had invited, Andrzej Domański has become finance minister, Izabela Leszczyna is health minister, Dariusz Wieczorek is higher education and science minister, and Władysław Teofil Bartoszewski is secretary of state at the foreign affairs ministry.

The Board’s strategy, based on members’ expectations, is to focus more than ever on dialogue with the Polish authorities, and on monitoring the regulatory environment. Marta Zawilska-Florczuk has joined the BPCC staff full time as regulatory affairs manager. A public affairs group, representing senior government affairs executives from UK investors in Poland, has already met Arkadiusz Myrcha, secretary of state at the justice ministry, and Mariusz Filipek, the plenipotentiary of the minister of technology and development responsible for deregulation and social dialogue. The BPCC has prepared a list of proposals drafted by members of improvements that they would like to see implemented in the regulatory environment in Poland.

Flagship events

High-profile events that have taken place since June 2023 include: Doing Business with the UK in Rzeszów, the Wrocław Agglomeration Real Estate Forum, Third BPCC Female Leadership Forum, Green Transformation: situation at the end of 2023, CEO New Year’s Breakfast, focused on the economic prospects for 2024, Female Entrepreneurship, HR & Talent Trends 2024 and the 2024 Poznań Real Estate Forum.

Face-to-face networking events are a permanent fixture in the BPCC calendar. Our regular mixers held during this period include the Back to School, Back to Work business mixer in Warsaw, the 19th International Oktoberfest in Wrocław, a Silesian Networking in Katowice, Christmas Carols with the British Embassy in Warsaw as well festive Christmas events in Wrocław and Katowice. We took an active part in key industry meetings including the Warsaw Circular Week and PAIH’s annual Business Forum in the National Stadium. Last year’s elections results were discussed together with our friends from the International Chamber of Commerce at the IGCC Post-Election Breakfast, Hotel Mamaison Le Regina Warsaw. In overall numbers for the reporting period, we’ve organised 14 networking events and co-organised or supported 245 other meetings, including sector and regulatory events, webinars and patronages, making this a record nine months in terms of activity. At the same time, our social-media presence is stronger than ever, with several thousand new followers observing our accounts on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Media

The BPCC’s Contact Magazine Online allows members to promote themselves by sharing their insights and best practice. The magazine appears five times a year, providing members with business insight, and professional opinions from expert practitioners. We are building a strong community voice representing the Polish, British and international points of view about doing business in Poland, in the English language, giving a global reach. Since last September’s AGM, four issues of Contact Magazine Online have appeared including a number of exclusive interviews. They were:

  • Finance and Financial Services (issue 59).
  • Digitalisation (issue 60)
  • Green Transformation (issue 61)
  • Human Resources (issue 62)

Contact Magazine Online reaches directly 3,800 recipients and is further promoted through our social media followers: LinkedIn (7,097); Twitter (2,400); and Facebook (1,800); data accurate at the time of writing.

Network reach

We remain active in the global network of British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) overseas, which now encompasses 75 British chambers across all continents. This network links in with the 53 accredited chambers around the UK; we help forge contacts between UK chamber members and businesses across Poland.

The BPCC has continued to play an active role in the work of the International Group of Chambers of Commerce, which now represents foreign investors from 17 countries present in Poland. In the past year, the IGCC has made high-level representations to the Polish authorities on taxation and labour-law issues. With such a major presence in the Polish economy, the IGCC remains a powerful voice for the foreign-investor community.

Membership

The current number of members is 271, compared to 263 in June 2023. The number of members is gradually rising with the biggest growth seen among mid-sized and large companies. The second part of our membership-fee increase happened in January 2024. We introduced the increase in two phases (January 2023 and January 2024) to make the impact more finance-friendly. We’re grateful for your understanding and support in this regard; higher fees have allowed us to offset for inflation and the resulting rise in operational costs that have impacted us.

Castorama, PwC and HSBC continue their Patronage commitment for which we’re extremely thankful. Our overall goal for the near future is to return to the pre-pandemic membership level of 290 member companies we had in January 2020.

People

Marta Zawilska-Florczuk has started in the role of the Regulatory Manger as of 1 December 2023. Urszula Kwaśniewska who worked with us on a project-by-project-basis since 2022 decided to continue her professional career outside of the BPCC from January 2024. The executive team now stands at seven including: Paweł Siwecki, Dorota Kierbiedź, Ilona Chodorowska, Jakub Piegat, Michael Dembinski, Paulina Sierańska and Marta Zawilska-Florczuk.

Administration and premises

The BPCC’s HQ remains on ulica Zielna 37 in Warsaw; our Wrocław branch office remains on ulica Strzegomska 142A.